Domestic appliance



July 22, 1958 R. H. WHY-rE DOMESTIC APPLIANCE Filed July 2; 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet l IN V EN TOR. lio/ML H. :mmf

/1/5 AoR/vfr July 22, 1958 Filed July 2, 1956 R. H. WHYTE DOMESTIC APPLIANCE 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. RON/ll H. WHYTE July 22, 1958 R. H. WHYTE DOMESTIC APPLIANCE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed July 2, 1956 o0 0000 00 OO INVENTOR. BaN/u H. mlrf f//s Arran/v rOOO@ /OOO United States Patent Oilice 2,843,945 Patented July 22, 1958 DOMESTIC APPLIAN CE Ronal H. Whyte, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application July 2, 1956, Serial No. 595,437

2 Claims. (Cl. 34-82) This invention relates to a domestic appliance and more particularly to laundry dryers. To meet the intensive present day competition it is necessary to market a 1aundry dryer whi-ch is efficient, inexpensive, convenient and adaptable to almost every conceivable situation.

It is an object of this invention to provide a dryer in which the number, size and cost of the parts and the assembly thereof are kept at a minimum.

It is another object of this invention to provide a dryer with a simple, inexpensive, reliable support for the front of the drum.

It is another object of this invention to provide a dryer with a simple, inexpensive air llow connection within the cabinet through the clothes loading opening of the drum.

It is another object of this invention to provide a simple,

inexpensive duct arrangement which will discharge either from the front, side, rear or bottom of the cabinet.

These and other objects are attained in the laundry dryer shown in which the drum is provided with a rear drive and a rear bearing,r upon a universal mounting while the front llange of the drum surrounding the clothes loading opening rides upon two nylon shoes mounted upon a ring member just inside the drum opening of the cabinet. The space between the ring member and the flange is sealed with felt. The periphery and front wall of the drum are substantially imperforate while the rear of the drum is perforated and sealed to the rear wall by a felt ring which guides air llowing in through the heater and an opening in the back Wall into the interior of the drum through the perforations in the rear wall. The air ilows out through the loading opening but inside the cabinet through openings in the ring member connecting with a downward duct extending to a lint box containing a lint collector.

This lint collector is fastened to the rear face of a drawer front provided `in the front wall of the cabinet beneath the door. The bottom portion of the lint box beneath the lint collector is connected by a tlexible duct to the inlet of a centrifugal fan. The centrifugal fan has its outlet connected by a llexible duct to either a forward discharge connection or to side, rear or bottom connections which may be connected to discharge outside the room or dwelling. The front connection connects to a row of horizontal slots beneath the lint collector discharging the air into the room. The motor which drives the fan also rotates the drum. The drum has six perforations in its cylindrical wall by which a restricted flow of air from the yspace surrounding the drum within the cabinet is drawn to keep the cabinet surfaces at safe temperatures and eliminate any need vfor heat insulation.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front view of a laundry dryer embodying my invention with the central portion of the door broken away;

Figure 2 is an irregular generally vertical sectional view taken along the lines 2 2 of Figure l;

Figure 3 is an irregular horizontal sectional view taken along the lines 3 3 of Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along the lines 4-4 of Figure 2.

Referring now to the `drawings there is shown a boxshaped sheet metal cabinet 20 having an outer rear wall 22 and an inner rear wall 24. An electric motor 26 is mounted upon the bottom wall 28 and rotates the drum 50 through a small pulley 30, a belt 32, a large pulley 34 driving a small pulley 36 and a second belt 38 connecting with a large pulley 40. This large pulley 40 is mounted upon the end of the drum shaft 42 at the rear of the drum 50. The shaft 42 is mounted in an oilless graphited bearing 44. The outer surface of this bearing 44 is in the shape of a segment of a sphere. This bearing 44 is mounted in a spherical socket 46 which may be formed by providing an inwardly flanged opening of a spherical contour on the inner back wall 24 and providing a plate with a complementary flanged spherical opening fastened in coaxial relationship upon the inner back wall 24. The drum shaft 42 is xed to the rear wall 48 of the drum 50.

This rear wall has a perforated portion 52 around the drum shaft 42 within a stationary felt air sealing ring 54 which is supported by the flanged metal ring 56 fastened to the inner rear wall 24. The inner rear wall 24 has a `flanged opening 58 into the space between it and the perforated rear wall of the drum 50. An electric heater 60 is supported on the inner wall 24 in a position to cover the opening 58 and is provided with a suitable enclosure j 62 for drawing the air through the heater. The outer rear wall 22 may be provided with suitable openings 64 to admit air to the `space between the two back walls. The drum 50 is imperforate except for the perforations 52 and two perforations 66 in each of the three inwardly projecting ribs 68. The imperforate front wall of the drum is provided with a forwardly flanged clothes loading opening.

The front end of the drum 50 is supportedjy a set of shoes 51 of nylon or polyamide resin upon the upper portion of a rearwardly ilanged ring member 72. The remaining spaces between the flanges is lilled by two strips 53 and 55 of felt to provide an` air seal between the drum 50 and the member 72. The member 72 has a peripheral portion overlying recessed door opening 74. The periphery of this ring member 72 is enveloped by a rubber gasket 76 having an inner gasket portion providing a seal between the ring member and the adjacent recessed front door opening of the cabinet. The rubber gasket 76 also has a door seal portion on the opposite face of the ring member 72 extending between the ring member and the recessed door 78. VThe ring member 72 has its rearwardly extending flanged opening concentrically located within the forwardly extending flanged opening of the drum 50. The radially extending portion of the ring member 72 is eccentrically shaped and positioned below the flanged openings to provide space for the three apertures 80. The inner face of the door 78 is spaced away from the ring member 72 sufficiently to provide a passage for free air llow from the flanged opening to the apertures S0.

These apertures conirct directly with a downwardly-f extending duct 82 immediately behind the front of the cabinet in front of the bottom of the drum 50. This duct 82 connects to an aperture in the top of the lint box 84.

'a Within the lint box 84 is a rectangular supporting frame 86 having its edges extended to substantially llt the sides and rear of the lint box while it makes substantial sealing engagement with the drawer front 88 extending horizontally in the front wall of the cabinet beneath the door 78. The rectangular frame 86 supports a lint collector 90 of nylon or polyamide mesh in the form of a shallow bag having its edges suspended from the rectangular support- 3 ing member 86. The rectangular support 86 is slidably `supported upon drawer guides 87 provided within the lint box 84. The lint collector 90 may be readily removed and cleaned by using the handle 92 to withdraw the drawer front 88 and the lint collector 90 simultaneously.

At one end, the lint box 84 is provided with an outlet connection 94 connected by a flexible duct 96 with the inlet opening of a centrifugal fan 98. This centrifugal fan 98 is connected to the front end of the double ended motor 26. The centrifugal fan 98 discharges into a flexible discharge duct 121 shown connected 'to the forward discharge connection 123 of the discharge box 12S. This discharge box 125 is provided with a high portion at the right side of the lint box 84 connecting with a low portion formed beneath the lint `box 84 and particularly between the bottom of the lint box 84 and the bottom wall 28 of the cabinet which is closed at the rear by an extension 127 of the rear wall of the lint box extending down to the bottom wall 28. This forms a discharge chamber 129 beneath the lint box from which air may be discharged through the horizontal louvers 131 provided in the front wall of the cabinet beneath the drawer front 88.

Wherever possible, it is more desirable to discharge the air from the dryer through a flue or duct to a point outside the house. To make this convenient, the side, rear and bottom walls are provided with alternative air discharge connections 133, 135, 137 which may be used to connect to any sort of discharge Iconnection leading out of the room or house.

In operation, after the loading of the wet clothes in the drum 50, the heater 60 and the motor 26 are energized to rotate the drum 50 through the pulley and belt drive previously mentioned. At the same time, the heater 60 is energized and the centrifugal fan 98 draws the air in through openings 66 as well as through the rear perforations 52 in the dnim 50. Air is drawn through the opening 64, the heater 60 and the opening 58 to supply hot air to the space within the felt ring 54 on the rear face of the perforations 52. The felt ring 54 remains stationary but extends into sealing engagement with the rotating rear wall of the drum t?. This insures that substantially all the air ilowing in through the perforated rear wall 52 will have been heated by the electric heater 60. The apertures 66 allow a suflicient flow of air from the space surrounding the periphery of the drum 50 to prevent a rise to dangerous temperatures in the portions of the cabinet immediately surrounding the drum 50. The air flows forwardly through the interior of the drum 50.

The door 78 is spaced away from the ring member 72 a suiiicient distance by the gasket 76 to provide an air space sufficient to permit free air flow from the drum around the cylindrical flange of the ring `member 72 and through the openings 80 into the duct 82. The ring member 72 is fastened to the ycabinet within the door opening by screws having their heads covered by the door seal. The clothes which are placed within the drum 50 through the clothes opening 74 after the door 78 is opened are tumbled by the rotation of the drum 50 and the ribs 68. This dislodges lint from the clothes causing it to be carried by the flowing air through the rearwardly fianged opening of the ring 72 and around the ring 72 into the holes 80. The air is drawn through the interior of the duct 82 into the lint box 84. The ease of removal of this lint collector 90 by merely pulling it outward by the handle 92 in the manner of a drawer makes it possible to readily keep the lint collector substantially free of lint at all times. The air after being filtered by the lint collector 90 passes through the iiexible duct 96 into the centrifugal fan which discharges through the tiexible discharge duct 121 in the discharge box 125 and through the louvers 131 into the room.

To prevent overheating, the heater is connected in circuit with a thermostat 139 provided on the bottom side of the top of the lint box 84 `as shown in Figure 2. Any abnormal rise in temperature at this sensitive point will open the heater circuit and prevent excessively high temperatures within the cabinet 20. The air fiow however will continue to assist in the cooling of the dryer. The door 78 is rectangular in shape and is mounted upon hinges at one vertical edge to the recessed door opening. A push button latch 141 is provided in the cabinet upon the opposite side of the door 78. The door 78 may be of any desired configuration provided sufficient space is allowed between it and the portion of the ring member adjacent the openings to permit relatively free air fiow. This design eliminates the usual stationary casing surrounding the drum and this eliminates a large expensive part. It is also substantially free of lint problems, fire hazards and manual lubrication. The manufacture of the parts and their assembly is simple.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might by adopted, as may come within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

l. A clothes dryer including a cabinet having an access opening and door; said opening having recessed portion; a gasket in said recessed portion for sealing said door from said access opening;` a ring in said recessed portion and spaced from said door by said gasket in a manner to form an air fiow passage; said ring having an axially inwardly extending annular liange and an aperture in communication with said air flow passage; a tumbling drum in said cabinet having a front wall and a perforated rear wall; a shaft on said rear wall for rotating said drum; said front wall having an opening formed with an axially outwardly extending `drum fiange overlying and in spaced relation to the inwardly extending ring flange; a plurality of load bearing shoes disposed in spaced relationship between the upper portions of said ring fiange and said drum flange to support said front wall and having nonloading bearing air seals between said shoes; a fixed rear partition in said cabinet adjacent said rear Wall; a spherical bearing housing on said partition; a bearing in said housing for journalling said shaft and adapted for universal shoe wear compensating movement within the limits of said flange spacing, thereby to prevent binding said shaft in variations of either horizontal or vertical movement.

2. A `clothes dryer having a cabinet including a front wall, a rear wall, a rear partition and enclosing a tumbling drum; a universal bearing on said partition for rotatably mounting said drum for both horizontal and vertical movement relative to said front wall; an access opening in said front wall defining a recess; a gasket in said recess; an access door hingedly mounted to close said opening and spaced therefrom by said gasket; said tumbling drum having a flanged opening in line with said access opening; a support ring spaced from said door by said gasket and defining an air passage; at least two support shoes on opposite sides of an upper portion of said support ring for supporting an adjacent overlying relatively rotatable portion of said flanged opening; a lint compartment dis posed below and in communicatin with said air passage; said compartment enclosing a slidably removable drawer; said drawer being comprised of a wire basket horizontally supported in said compartment for collecting and retaining lint and a blower for drawing air consecutively through said drum, air passage and lint compartment.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,500,062 Clark Mar. 7, 1950 2,543,579 Kauffmann Feb. 27, 1951 2,716,820 Bourner Sep. 6, 1955 2,751,688 Douglas .Tune 26, 1956 

